Her speechless expression was not one of joy.He’d seen that same look the last time he proposed to a woman, and it hadn’t ended inhappily ever after.Not for him.
“I can’t marry you,” Malika said, as if she couldn’t believe he’d had the nerve to ask and expect her to say yes.
Her incredulousness stung.“I’m pretty enough to sleep with but I’m not good enough for you to marry?”
“Your looks have nothing to do with it,” she said patiently.“You aren’t Djitanian.Adeel is very patriotic about such things.And while I might not know much about money, I feel confident that if you’re worried about buying a few bison, you don’t have the amount of money a man who owns several stables of the finest horses in the world would expect for my mahr.”
He didn’t know what a mahr was, not precisely, but he knew it meant her brother expected money in exchange for his permission for them to marry.It took some of the sting out of her rejection.She wasn’t trying to be offensive.She was pointing out the flaw in his plan—the same as he’d done with hers.
Besides, she was right.He didn’t have the kind of money Adeel would likely expect for her mahr.He didn’t have twenty-five million dollars, either.
The money was a secondary problem.She only had a few more weeks remaining in Burning Scrub.What if she left, only to discover, after it was too late, that she was pregnant?He’d always wonder about it.He’d worry.
Certainty was worth far more than money to him.If there was a baby, that baby was his.
“Are you saying you don’t want to marry me?”he asked, because he’d prefer to have his facts straight before he went over her head to her brother and did the honorable thing.“What if you’re pregnant?”
She got her back up again.Poor Side-eye couldn’t decide which way to bolt, so he stayed put.
“I’m hardly stupid.I know my own cycle.Do you think I would take such a foolish risk?”Her chin went up a few notches.Her gaze dared him to contradict her, but he wasn’t that stupid, either.“I am no more interested in being your second choice than I am in becoming a second wife to Eli Chamas.”
He would never understand women.Trying to keep up made his head hurt.
“Why do you think you’re my second choice?”
“Because you’re in love with Belle.”
How had Belle gotten caught up in his proposal to Malika?
“I am not in love with Belle.”
He hadn’t thought about her in days.He couldn’t claim he was in love with Malika either, because she annoyed him, and she took a great deal of pleasure in it.But as far as women went, he had developed a distinct preference for her.Which meant she really had driven him crazy.
“I thought you didn’t believe in love before marriage?”he added, since she’d brought it up.
“Of course I don’t believe in love before marriage.I’m Djitanian.But you’re an American, and Americans do things differently than we do.Your parents’ marriage wasn’t arranged, and yet, they’ve built a lovely life together.”A wistful smile crept onto her lips and softened her eyes.“They made a beautiful son.”
She was weakening.He didn’t care that she was Djitanian.All women went nuts over babies.
He took advantage of it.“Imagine how pretty our children will be.”
The chink in her resistance widened.“They would be very beautiful,” she agreed.
“You’d be my first wife.My only wife,” he added quickly.“I can put that in writing, if you like.”
“You would have to persuade Adeel,” she said.
“Leave Adeel to me.”
“Then yes,” Malika said.“I will marry you.”
He’d won.
Jayce’s heart unclenched.His lungs expanded.Relief spread through his chest and onto his face.Proposing to her had been harder than he’d anticipated.
It was worth it.
Her acceptance gave him far more pleasure than he’d expected too.
